No place to go
by Dresner1817
Summary: Enemies by fate, by choice, or ignorance? The question raises its ugly head when Ember is wounded in a close encounter in the Ghost Zone. Danny, torn between doing the right thing and his heart, tries to find the answers as he nurses Ember back to health. Is he just doing his duty as a hero or is he following his heart? DannyxEmber FF RR
1. Chapter 1: Close Encounters

**_Damn I'm back after all this time? Wow. Blast from the past. Haters unite once against as Dresner has returned with more Heresy. Lol Only showing the OC once kind of to round him out for me. I've been thinking of writing more lately since time has slowed down for me and I need a outlet for creative expression.  
So I decided to come back to Danny Phantom after digging into that Andrew Blaze dude and his EGS stuff. I know its a negative as hell point to want to get back into writing but I will say I got me thinking of Ember x Danny Pairing. No it won't be 70% OC and 30% Show. NO, it will be all known characters so this is a first for me. NO, I'm not going all EGS 'I'm going to shoot up a super market'.  
Apologize for insensitivity? NO. _**

**_Hope you enjoy, please Favorite, Follow, and Review.  
With Love Dresner~_**

* * *

 _ **Chapter 1: Close encounter**_

"You won't pull the trigger... I know you don't have the guts to..."

 _"Sure about that, big guy?" The sound of the hammer on a revolver locks back echos around them._

 _"Ha... Haha... Hahahaha" He laughs choking on his own blood._

 _"I'm sorry."_

You ever lay in your bed at night staring up at the ceiling? Trying to fall asleep but your mind refuses follow suit reminding you of your life. For some people its a long story of pain and others its of success. Maybe you regret what you did to your loved ones or proud that you did a good deed. Its almost as if your mind is trying to tell you something... Gnawing at you from its depths... Then it hits you.

A hard jolt awakens him as if he had just had a terrible nightmare. A cold chill races down his spine and shakes him to the core. He breaths heavily and throws his hands on his chest to stop his beating heart from wanting to burst out of his chest. Throwing himself up he finds himself floating in a endless expanse of swirling black and green nothing.

"How?..." He feels a hard throbbing in his skull and throws his hands on his temples. With his pinky fingers he feels a depression in the center of his forehead. The pain grows causing him to scream and fill his mouth with the iron taste of blood. His vision fads slightly as he takes his hands off his head and put them on his nose. Like a water vein his nose pours a dark stream of blood onto his black coat. The man lays back and sighs deeply as he realizes what had happen to him. He couldn't remember the events exactly but he even if he tried the pain would send a hard shock to his body and cause more hemorrhage. "How?..." He asks himself as he floats into the never ending expanse of the hell that he found himself in. The bleeding had stopped to a trickle and began to surround him like a dying seal in the pacific.

He prayed for the forthcoming great white to finally drag him into the depths and end his existence once and for all.

"No..." He says to himself with iron in his heart as he searches the inside of his coat for his sidearm or his knife. A dying smirk appears as he finds his sidearm, a large framed bulky Mauser C96. "I'm not suffering alone in this... Not this time..."

* * *

Ember closes her door to her realm with a slight smirk on her face. Its the first time in weeks since she's been out since she was sent back to the Ghost Zone after her last run in with the Halfa with Young blood. Time have been rough for Ember lately as she kept thinking about the run ins with the halfa in detail trying to come up with a plan to put him out of action so she can finally get the attention she deserves from all the youth on earth. Unlike most of the population in the Ghost Zone who wished to either defeat, humiliate, eat, or mount the halfa's head on a wall in their trophy room, Ember only wished to get him out of the way. Not finish the job and make him a full blooded ghost.  
No. That wasn't in her nature. Regardless of what anyone, including the halfa, would think about her. She was only interested and bringing music, and herself, to the world stage.

With her guitar on back she set off to the east side of the Ghost Zone to meet with her friend Kitty and her boyfriend Johnny 13. Nothing special this weekend other than a friendly get together on Earth for a night on the town. No fighting, no trouble, no world wide revolution. She just needed to get out and enjoy herself for once.

"Yeahh! Ohhh!" Her phone rang her own song Remember.

"What's up?"

"Ember get over to the East bend A.S.A.P!" Kitty screams from the other end.

"Woah girlfriend, what's the-"

"NOOOOOWWWWW!" She screams hanging up the phone. Ember races across the Zone at break neck speed like a comet through space. Kitty and her have been friends for sometime now and when she starts screaming into the phone like that is only when either Johnny storms off or he's in trouble.

"Please be something other than that stupid bike of his again." Ember says to herself as she sores to the East Bend of the Ghost Zone where one of the man made portals that bridges the Ghost Zone to Earth. She arrives a bit later to find Kitty clutching Johnny 13 in her arms with tears in her eyes. Johnny was hurt bad, but not fatal.

"Holy..." Ember says grabbing her mouth in disbelief as she tries to help Johnny to his feet. "What happen to you!? Did that dipstick Phantom do that? You look like you got your ass handed to you bad!"

"No!" Johnny snorted as he got back on his feet. "Some prick jacked my bike!"

Ember chuckles rudely and begins to think of a harsh reply to Johnny and his obsession with his bike. Kitty must have over reacted again, she always been just as irrational as her more than once. Her latest episode with taking away all the men from Amity park proved that, but how could she judge her?

The roar of a motorcycle engine, the deep growl of a Harley Davidson, fills the air around them drawing closer toward them.

"Thats my bike!" Johnny shouts as he tires to get into the air but falls flat on his face. "SHADOW!" Johnny's shadow appears, but Ember stops the inky black demon.

"I got this." Ember says as she takes her guitar off her back and lays it down like a hover board. She races off as Kitty tries to warn her about the guy who took Johnny's bike. But Ember didn't care. Who ever this was had to be some ghost zone scumbag who doesn't know the pecking order in this side of the Zone. No one messes with her friends.

A robins egg blue glare shined out of the mirror on the motorbike. He looks back to see a goth teenager with fiery blue hair riding a guitar in a blaze of blue like a jet fighter on full afterburner.

"Joyrides over pal!" Ember shouts as she closes on the coated bike jacker. "If you stop here I won't hit you as hard!"

"Piss off bitch!" He yells back, throwing the bike side to side to knock her off her board.

"Going to have to try harder loser!" Ember yells shooting pink energy beams from her hands.

"Its a dogfight you want bitch!?" The man yells. "Lets go!"

The bike accelerates dramatically, the torque throwing the bike back into a wheely with green fire burning a streak into the darkness of the Ghost Zone. He leads them into a field of floating junk from hundreds of years of collection. She fires her beams wildly destroying junk and rock attempting to knock him off the bike. The man laughs and expertly weaves pasted the ectoplasm cover hulls of ships and airplanes. The bike levels on the hull of a large ship cutting a deep green scar into it as Ember fires her energy beams in a attempt to hit him.

"My mechanic shoots better than you!" He taunts her as he keeps course straight toward the stern of the ship as the wing of a passenger jet slowly hovers toward the stern making a ramp for him. The bike screams like a banshee as he pulls the accelerator back hard, shooting fire out of the exhaust and turning the bike into a green fireball as he hits the jump sending the bike into the air out of the junk field. Ember almost loses control as she tries to dodge the bits and pieces of junk around her as she tries to catch him.

"Screw this!" She shouts throwing her guitar in her hands and changing the setting to sound wave. With one hard thrust on the cords she sends a massive wave to clear the junk out of her way. The junk hurtles toward the man on the bike and throws him off sending him crashing down back into the junk field.

He turns on his stomach like a parachutist instantly, closing his arms and legs together to speed up his fall. Ember gets back on her guitar and flys to intercept him for the kill. But before she could close he draws a large pistol and fires at a near by airplane, a Dauntless Fighter Bomber from the second world war. The plane explodes into a fireball causing her to divert her course and miss him by a mile. Out of the flash of the explosion as loud ripping sounds caught her attention to a swarm of red tracers heading her way. She turns her guitar to block the tracers and near gets hit before taking cover behind a ocean liner.

The man throws the Stinger Machine gun into the obsess and opens his arms and legs to slow his fall onto a near by Cessna. Landing on his hands and knees he takes a quick breath and searches for the bike in the sea of steel and fire.

"There!" He shouts launching himself to his feet. Charging forward he leaps on to junk piles toward the reminds of a aircraft carrier wear the bike sat on its side.

"Bastard!" Ember shouts firing her beams at him. "You destroyed my guitar! You'll pay for this!"

The man is quick, dodging ever blast his way until he reached the flat top of the carrier and sprinted to the bike. ' _Who is this guy? He's good.'_ She asks herself as she dives toward the carrier.

"Shows over dipstick!" She shouts as she charges a beam.

"Not this time!" He shouts, combat rolling to the ground by the bike drawing his pistol and firing six shots into Ember's body. She recoils and slams into the flight deck of the carrier. Sending a shock wave knocking him and the bike into the remains of a Zero fighter. He recovers shortly after crashing into the ancient aircraft dusting himself off and trying to get his head straight. From across the deck he saw the ghost girl laying in the fetal position covered in a faint blue flame. He takes a quick check of himself and then to his pistol. A quick brass check shows he has one in the chamber, his last round.

"Its all I need..." He says with a deep sigh as he walks toward the girl. "She's not even human. Not anymore."

When he closes on her he aims for her head, But to her surprise she slowly gets the strength to get to her feet. Her hands glow with pink energy readying for her final stand against him.

"You're pretty good." He says impressed. "But not good enough kid."

"Come and get it old man." She says with determination as she fixes her stance.

The shot throws her back and into the oblivion of the ghost zone...

* * *

 _ **Amity Park~**_

Danny, Sam, and Tucker were just leaving Nasty Burger after humiliating Dash and his jerk friends. It was Saturday and the trio needed this day off after a long week of school work and ghost hunting. Surprisingly the day hadn't gone to hell in a hand basket with ghost activity at all. The sun was out, the breeze was cool, and with his friends it seemed like the perfect day to finally be a teenager for once.

"Danny you got to see this!" Tucker said putting his PDA in Danny's face. On the screen was a promo for Leviathan's wake, A massive rock and heavy metal tour with some of the world largest bands. The next stop was Amity Park!

"Woah!" Sam interjects taking a look at the screen with excitement. "Look at this line up! Third Eye Blind, Pop Evil, Behemoth-"

"They even have techo!" Tucker interrupted as he took back the PDA.

Danny couldn't help but smirk lightly as his best friends fought over the PDA to check out the line up for the concert. He was lucky to have these two in his life, even more so since the accident turning him into a half human half ghost, Halfa. Ha. He would laugh to himself when he would hear that title given to him by the ghosts of Casper High during his last adventure. Better than most of the nicknames given to him by his enemies and friends. But something in the back of his mind seemed wrong and he simply couldn't think of what might it be.

"Next weekend!" Tucker exclaimed, "Tickets are on sale at the mall at 5 o'clock. 20 minutes from now!"

"Lets go!" Sam replies grabbing Danny's hand and dragging him with them.

He was happy to go, especially with Sam. Out of all the girls he knew she was the only one that could relate to him in a way. Through all her faults she might be the one for him. But he has his doubts about her...

A cold chill rolls off of him as his ghost sense makes a overdue appearance. "Great." He says sarcastically as he scans around himself searching for what might have tripped his senses. Then he saw it. A ball of bright blue screaming across the sky could only mean one thing: Ember.

Danny ran to a collection of thick bushes and quickly turned into his ghostly self and took off into the sky after her.

As he moves to intercept her he go for the height advantage to jump her. Ember might be a impulsive teenage spirit, but he punching energy beams and guitar give Danny a run for his money. He saw this move in a fighter pilot movie, taking advantage of the sun to get the jump on your enemy. Once he got the advantage he charged up his own energy beams and dived on her like a eagle.

Then he saw her.

It wasn't the defiant and arrogant teen pop idol standing on her guitar with a devil may care expression and fire in her eyes. No. This was a wounded bird shot out of the sky and slowly tumbling to earth.

"What?... Who?" Danny gasps and powers down his energy beams. He closes his arms and picks up speed to get face to face with her. He scoops her up and goes intangible to avoid running dead on into the side of a skyscraper. "God... What happen to you Ember?" Danny says as he spots the gunshot wounds in her stomach and legs. He tries to put his hand on them to stop the bleeding, but retracts his hands as they burn as if they had been soaked in acid.

"Danny!" Sam calls out over Fenton Phones, a Fenton brand cellular headphones. "Whats going on? Is Ember put away?"

"No." He replies harshly. "Someone decided to put the diva out of her misery. She's hurt bad."

"Huh?" Tucker interrupts. "What do you mean Danny?"

"Just..." He tries to hold back from snapping. "Just meet me back at my place. It's hard to explain."

"Alright." Tucker replies signing off.

"Danny?" Sam asks him. "You don't sound yourself."

"I'm fine." Danny replies. "Its just hard to see her like this. She's pretty ruffed up and whoever did this is just... Cruel."

"Vlad maybe?"

"No. Plasmus is a nut, but not a murderer. If he was he would have done something a little less than what happen to Ember on my Dad." Danny replies as he looks over Ember's body. A light breath took him off guard as Ember opens her eyes. She tries to gasp but winces as the pain holds back her breath.

"Dipstick?" She lets out faintly. "You came to save me?..."

Danny looks down and sees the pain in her eyes. This wasn't the Ember he fought, This was someone else completely. It was heart breaking...

"Yeah..." He lets out in a almost whisper. "You'll be alright... I got you."

"Thank you babypop." She says burying her head in his chest. "Thank you..."

"Stay with me Ember!" Danny says urgently. "Come on keep talking to me!"


	2. Chapter 2: Coming to

_**Wow some reviews. Amazing especially since I posted this up on Saturday. Thanks guys I appreciate it! And the Favs and Follows!  
**_ _ **Alright some background to this, This has Zero connection to my Door to Deliverance fic. So this is in its own universe. Along with that if things go the way I want it to it will be a divergence from the series past the Relationship. There will be build up to the beloved Ember x Danny pairing it takes time, just saying.**_

 ** _To be honest writing for the canon characters is a fresh change of pace. I like it. I hope I'm getting the personalities of these characters correct and I'm waiting for the inevitable 'YOU SUCK' hate mail._**

 ** _Thank you everyone!  
With love ~Dresner_**

* * *

 _ **Chapter 2: Coming to**_

"What happen to her?" A young whinny male voice asked near by.

"It looks like she was shot... A lot." A female voice she didn't recognize. "And it isn't from anything Mom and Dad have."

Ember rolls over on her side and tries to open her eyes but the bright light from the sun kept her at a squint. Her body ached all over from head to toe with a crippling pain the like she only felt once in her life many many years ago. She couldn't see much but from what she could make out she was in some teenagers room, which surprised her as the last thing she remembered before blacking out was taking a bullet from a old man in a sea of forgotten ships and airplanes at the East Bend near the Bermuda inlet, a massive run off point for missing aircraft and ships that have the bad luck of running into one of the many naturally accruing portals into the Ghost Zone and run into the more primal and malevolent spirits that stalk that part of the Zone.

"Skulker? Plasmius? Valery?" A more familiar voice replies.

"This doesn't seem like them Danny." Another female said as the sound of typing keys on a keyboard. "Skulker, for a time, was a love interest for her. Even if someone paid him enough I don't think he would turn on her. Vlad and Valery maybe, But the marks on her aren't anywhere near their MO."

'Danny?' Ember gasps in a whisper. 'Dipstick? Dipstick saved me?' The faint memory of the halfa taking her in his arms slowly appeared in her mind. 'Ha... Wow.' Shes says drifting in and out of consciousness.

"Laser leave burns, not holes." The other voice replied. Ember managed to get a better look at her and recognized her as the goth girl who she made the halfa fall in love with a while back. Sam she think was her name. "This is something a little more low tech and a little more human."

"How can bullets harm ghosts?" The other female replied. She was taller with orange hair and blue eyes with a light resemblance to the halfa.

"I remember reading something in one of my books on old world folklore." Sam says as she pulls up a article on 'Cold Iron and the Paranormal'. "Even now people in rural communities use it to keep away spirits. Scythe, iron hooks, or iron horse shoes by the door of barns, Iron amulets under the stares of the entrance of their homes, iron scissors by the crib of newly born babies."

"Cold iron is one of the first elements which takes more energy for fusion than fission! Its a energy sink!." The annoying guy said. 'Ugh I know that voice!' Ember cringed 'That's the lowlife that ruined my first concert hear on earth. I know that voice anywhere Screech!'

"Tucker your right!" The taller girl replied.

'Tucker?' Ember smirks. 'I like my name better.'

"This article says something about Iron having aura like a spirit due to its magnetic properties. Its basically causing energetic forms to 'fight' against 'the current'. It takes energy in and will either bind it to it or split it apart based on its polar alignment." Sam explains as she surfs through some articles.

"Just like the weapons Mom and Dad uses, but cruder." Danny replies. "And crueler."

"Did you touch her wounds?" Sam asked.

"Yeah it burned like acid." Danny replies as he looks at the slight burns on his hand.

"Just like iron can harm ghosts and obviously humans, it can harm someone who's somewhere in between." The taller one replied.

"Thanks for stating the obvious Jazz." Danny replies rolling his eyes.

'Jazz.' Another memory comes back to her. 'She can't sing either. Almost as annoying as Screech, but not as much.'

She turns over on her back and looks at her stomach to see her wounds were patched up with special bandages. Must have been something the halfa has in that arsenal of his just in case he gets rough up to bad. 'Wow. This must be his place if all those losers are here. And parents? He's just a kid like me! Well at least I was when I passed...'

"The next question is who uses Iron bullets?" Tucker asks openly.

"I might know someone to ask." Danny replies as he gazes over to Ember laying in his bed. "She might have something to clue us in."

"I don't know Danny." Sam says voicing some concern. "This is to out of the norm for anyone we know. For all we know Vlad could have paid her, convince, or-"

"Coerced?" Danny interjected.

"I was going to say use this in her insidious plan to get you out of the picture for Plasmius's or her own personal gain!" Sam argues. "Ember is evil and the last two run in's with her have shown that she isn't above working for any lowlife ghost or betraying them. She's a mercenary after all!"

"It can't be." Danny counters. "Did you see her guitar? That's her life. Anyone who trashes that thing she goes over board. Why would she trash her own guitar? I don't think anyone could pay her, threaten her, or convince her to trash it."

"What happen to her guitar?" Jazz asks.

"It looks like someone took it out of a war zone." Tucker tells her. "Its sitting down stairs in pieces. Whatever did that damage was something old school and automatic."

"Maybe its a fake." Jazz says, taking Sam's side of the argument. "If she's working with Vlad then he has to have had a copy made to make this seem real. Or she had one made to fake you out. Who knows?"

"Who knows is the number one question." Tucker agrees.

"Then the only way to find out is to ask." Danny says firmly. He lowers his voice and motions them closer. "And besides, Even if she did it to herself she isn't in any shape to fight for awhile. Who knows? Even if this the real deal and she was jumped by someone we could find ourselves a new friend in the Ghost Zone. Its not like we have a lot to count on anyways."

"I'm fine with that." The other three agree in unison. Tucker and Jazz agreed with out question it made sense to them. Making friends is a better option than making enemies especially in their line of work when they have the option to. But Sam wasn't completely sold on the idea and Danny could see it in her eyes. He could hear Ember tossing around in bed and that was the cue to approach her. He'll talk to Sam later he noted to himself.

He takes a seat on his nightstand next to her as she slowly comes to. "Dipstick? Wha-" She whispers trying to get a feel of where she is.

She decides to play it up a bit. She'd been somewhat awake for a few minutes or how ever long they had been talking.

"Here let me help you." Danny says helping her proper herself up against the bed board.

With what strength she had she stopped him and brought herself up. "No... I got it. Thanks dipstick." She forgets to take her hand off of his, but Danny doesn't say anything.

"You don't have to thank me, Really." He replies. "How are you feeling?"

"Like hell." She replies as she fixes her hair with her free hand. "What did you do to get those slugs out?"

"Oh." Danny says looking over at his friends and sister, Sam scowling at him and looking down at Ember's hand on his. He moves his hand back toward his lap and continues. "None of them were stuck in you. Just some shards so we took them out and put these bandages on you. I got them from my friends in the Realm of the Far Frozen."

"I know that place." Ember says weakly. "I remember my first day in the Ghost Zone. Got lost mhmm?"

"No, No, No. Hehe No." Danny say trying to hide his embarrassment. "Uhh.. Yeah. Well I mean you don't get good at what you do with out messing up, you know?"

Ember chuckles and shoots him a quick smile. "Whatever you say babypop."

Danny shares the laugh, a little humility goes a long way sometimes. "But really, How are you feeling?"

"Just hurting... Don't remember much other than everything going black, then you, and now this." She says speaking with her hand showing her current state. "Its all a blur but I'll get better soon. Hopefully."

"Anything else you can remember?" Danny asks.

"Thats the thing. I can't." She replies annoyed. "Everything was so fast its hard to put it all together. One moment I get a angry call from Kitty and the next I'm hear. What part of that don't you understand?"

"Hey!" Sam shouts. "You better be thankful that Danny saved you from turning the pavement a new shad of blue. He's trying to help you and you should at least try and help us get back at 'Who' ever did 'this'."

"Piss off creep!" Ember fires back her hair rising a bit from her angry. The pain in her stomach and legs made her back down and calm herself. She takes a breath and looks over at Danny and tries to mouth out 'I'm sorry' but her pride kept her from saying it. Ember was a proud creature and couldn't risk losing that image.

"Whatever." Sam snorts, turning her back and walking out the door. "Ungrateful bitch." She says under her breath. Jazz and Tucker follow behind to calm her down, but before he leaves Tucker sticks his head out through the door. "We'll take care of damage control Danny." He says as he leaves.

"Thanks Tucker." Danny replies as he turns back to Ember who's sulking in bed. "Sorry about that."

"Pff Like I care." Ember retorts with spite turn her back to him.

"She's right you know." Danny counters. "A bit of gratitude would be nice like what you showed me in the air."

"WHAT?!" She gasps, turning back to him and grabbing his forearms. "IF YOU LET ANYONE IN THE- AHHHUGH!" She shouts in pain before laying back down in bed.

After all the fighting they have done he knew how to get into her head. But this time around that isn't the smartest decision to make even in her weakened state. "Relax Ember. Whatever happens is between us, alright? No one has to know." He says reassuring her.

"Yeah. You better keep that promise dipstick." Ember replies sharply. "If you know whats good for you."

"You're not exactly in the shape or position to be acting like a diva." Danny shoots back sharper. "You're to weak to move let alone make threats. Especially here of all places. The fact that one of my enemies is here on somewhat good terms is a miracle."

"Oh and thank you oh powerful ghost punk for showing mercy to me!" Ember remarks sarcastically. "Who says I'm not just pla-" She recoils back in pain and grabs her stomach.

"Hold on I got something for this." Danny says as he reaches to the desk for a black medkit. He pulls out a couple of tables and gives them to Ember. "Frostbite made these for me, Kind of like Ecto-Antibiotic/Pain killer. It helps me when Skuller or Vlad uses one of those heavy rays they like to use."

"Bleh!" Ember says swallowing the tablets. "Sawdust! Gross!"

"You get use to it. Its better to wash it down with something other than water to mask the taste." Danny says giving her a soda.

"Still bleh, even with pop." Ember snickers. "I'm surprised you even have friends in the Ghost Zone. Especially big time players like those pop sickles."

"When you're the top dog in the Ghost Zone you tend to make some friends, but mostly enemies." He says acting cocky.

Ember rolls her eyes and tries to hold back a smirk. "Speaking of enemies, hero, why let one of them lay in you bed? Let alone being such a wonderful nurse."

"Nurse? Really? More like doctor." Danny says, snickering at the thought of Dr. Danny Fenton. "And besides, Would a hero leave someone, including his enemies, to hit the ground after having a run in with some one packing Iron bullets?"

"Pshh whatever Doc." Ember says with a little smirk and returning her back to the bed board. "Hmmm maybe not. But everyone, even a hero, has their own motives for what they do. What's yours?"

"No faith in the good of humanity?" Danny goes on a limb.

"Not really. Haha." Ember replies putting the soda back on the table. "You can't really trust anyone in the Ghost Zone, except you friends of course."

"I've teamed up with some of the Ghost Zones worst before." Danny tells her. "Skulker might not want to admit it. But we broke out of Waller's ghost jail together along with Desiree, Technus, and a couple of others a while back. Along with some other jams we found ourselves in. Enemy of my Enemy is my friend and all that. I'm I using that right?"

"Something like that haha." She laughed. "But like I said, everyone has their motives."

"What makes you think I have a motive?" Danny challenges her.

"Doctor has to pay his bills to babypop." Ember replies with a snicker. Her hand slides off her stomach and on to the bed only a few inches away from Danny. He looks at her bandages and gives a sympathetic glare. He lets go of the tension and relaxes in his chair. Ember wasn't a threat in her state and he knew it so he better act like it. He let out a brief prayer in hope that this won't come back to haunt him. Its a gamble for him, but if he kept his guard up she wasn't going to budge.

He lets out a long sigh, "Not this one. The only thing I want to know is who hurt you. No one deserves to be filled full of iron, Human or ghost."

This was genuine or maybe a well crafted lie. Either way it hit a cord with her and she looked away from him and recoiled her hands back over her chest before turning on her side to hide herself from him. No one has ever been this nice to her before. It wasn't something she was use to.

"Ember." Danny says in a near whisper reaching out to her.

"I told you I don't remember!" She snaps, her hair flaring up pushing him away. "Just leave me along. When I get better I'll leave, alright?!"

Danny gets defensive, but instead of making it worse he gets up and heads for the door. "The meds are in the kit near the bed. If you need anything just call to me. My parents are out for the next week or so for some convention so don't be afraid to say something."

"Whatever dipstick." She spat covering herself with the blankets. The door shuts like a steel door leaving Ember to her own thoughts. 'This has to be a trap.' She tries to convenes herself. 'That dipstick has something up his sleeve. I know it. He's just like that old halfa, Vlad. Just another backstabber trying to get one over me again... Just like him and fucking Shaun...' She teared up as the rage bubbled inside her. Ember threw the blankets off of her and threw herself to the side of the bed before collapsing in pain on the floor.

Ember laid there unable to move for a few minutes crying to a empty room. She grew tired, 'I guess those meds are getting to me...' With in a few seconds she fell asleep on the floor with her tears as her pillow.

Danny hears a thump from up stares and stands up quickly. "Calm down. Little Ms. Pop star must be throwing a fit in her dressing room. I say just let her be." Sam replies taking a sip of coffee.

"How did it go?" Jazz asks, trying to take Danny's mind off Sam.

"Not to good. She's not budging, but maybe shes telling the truth. With that kind of pain she can't be a reliable source of information, regardless if it was self inflicted or not." Danny says giving her the benefit of the doubt.

"You're going to have to let her heal then and try to earn her trust." Jazz says intelligently.

"What makes you think she won't escape?" Sam asks aggressively.

"What's your deal Sam?" Danny fires back.

"Besides the fact that you're practically sleeping with the enemy?" Sam says getting to her feet. "I don't trust her and you shouldn't be so forgiving. Who knows she could jump you in the middle of the night and what then?"

Sam wasn't the best at voicing her emotions, and neither way he, but, she had a point. She was, after all, worried about her best friend and his safety. He sighs and tries to get on some even ground with her.

"Don't worry. I have the thermos and whatever stupidly named weapon my Mom and Dad hid all over the house. Also I'm part ghost, duh. Its not like I haven't faced her before." Danny said confidently.

"I know." Sam replied backing down. "I'm just worried, Ok?"

"I know. I know." Danny says. "I got this. Now lets just relax and have some fun. Those meds I gave her should have her knocked out for a long time. So how about we go to the mall or something to get our mind off this?"

"I'll stay here I have a report coming up soon and I better finish it before Monday." Jazz says as she gets up off the couch. "I'll watch Ember till you get back."

"Thanks sis." Danny says. "Let me grab some cash from my room and I'll meet you out front."

Sam and Tucker nodded and walked out the door. He was lucky to have friends like them, but sometimes they are a pain in his ass. Even so he thinks of them as part of his extended family. Jazz hangs back as Danny goes upstairs first feeling something was up with him. He enters his room leaving the door cracked just enough for her to get a good look inside. She sees the bed empty with a concerned look on Danny's face.

'I knew she was-'

Danny walked to the other side of the bed and bent over. Ember was cradled in his arms like a loved one and then sat her back in bed. He looked sad to see her like this and it touched Jazz's heart to see her brother show such empathy for someone, especially someone who tried to kill him. Danny tucks her in and stands there for a moment.

"I'm sorry." He says to her before heading for the door. "You'll get better soon. I know you will."

Jazz splits for the nearest door as she watches Danny walk down the stares and leave the house.

"You're going to be a good man Danny." She says with pride as she pears into his room at the snoozing Ember. "I just hope your judgement is just as right as your heart.: Jazz closes the door and heads to her room to her desk. She opens a drawer and takes out her laptop and a Ecto-Pistol. The battery was charged on both with a spare battery for the pistol near by.

'I'm my mothers child, No questions asked.' She chuckles to herself as she pulls up her report on her laptop and begins work. Hopefully she'll be able to finish it unless the pop star decides to change that.

But she wasn't worried. Not at all.


	3. Chapter 3: Warming up

_**I know my writing is very dialog heavy. Its that way so I can work on Character development. So this chapter is pretty much Jazz and Ember heavy, with some bits of the Ember X Danny ship. I hope everyone is enjoying this story. I'm trying to do something different than the standard 'Oh they love each other instantly and then ship.' Trying to give Ember more background since we know Danny so well from the series.**_

 _ **So far I think this story is going on a good track with the views here and there. Honestly this is a huge improvement from when I first started writing Fics back in 14' when I was in high school.**_

* * *

Its been a couple of hours since Danny left and all seemed quiet. No loud crashes, explosions, or even the anger howls of a pissed off pop star. Surprisingly it was peaceful in the Fenton works for the first time in what seemed to be ages or even for that matter. She managed to finish her report and spent most of her time listening to music on her laptop while she shopped for new more physically inclined clothing for her new job as a ghost hunter.

'I better check on her.' She thought to herself as she looks at her door. 'Its been to quiet, especially for her.'

Jazz backs out of her seat and heads for the door. Then she realized who she was dealing with and what she remembered about wounded animals, fight or flight. Ember might be wounded and spitting out harsh remarks, but who knows what that medicine might have done to her in a couple of hours for a full blooded ghost vs what it does for a half breed.

'Better have this on hand.' She thought as she took the pistol and holstered it in the small of her back.

Jazz crosses the hall and cracks the door to Danny's room where she saw Ember tossing and turn in bed. It appeared she was having a nightmare by the troubled look on her face as she thrashed in bed.

"Stop... Please... SSSSTTTTOOOOOPPPP AAAAAAHHH!" Ember screams as she storms out of her slumber. She's breathing heavily and grabs her wounds as the pain reminds her where she is and what happen to her.

"Ember!" Jazz shouts, "Are you ok?!"

"Wha?... Who?" She mumbles resting her back on the bed board. "Shit... I'm still... Wow... I'm fine. Fine uh..."

"Jazz." She replied. "It's Jazz. I'm Danny's older sister."

"So thats why you look like dipstick a little." Ember says as she lets out a dying snicker as she tries to catch her breath. "I remember you. You can't sing, at all. You tried crashing my concert when Kitty, Spectra, and I took all the boys away."

"Oh yeah you're doing fine." Jazz says giving her a dirty glare. "Remember you're talking to someone who knows just as much as Danny about Ghost Hunting. Don't think I won't just throw you in the thermos and shoot you back into the Ghost Zone."

"Geez Red, I'm only giving some constructive criticism." Ember says, trying not to get thrown into that stupid thermos of their's. "Besides, Why would you want to do that. I'm kind of on hiatus from rocking the world and you with my greatest hits."

"Because I don't trust you." Jazz says flatly. "You've tried to kill my brother multiple times and tried to turn me and my family into a power source for some undead brat."

"Oooh harsh," Ember says approvingly. "It wasn't personal, if that helps. I was hired to help him and frankly it was beneficial for both of us. As for dipstick, well..."

Jazz throws her upper body over Ember and pins her to the bed board. "Look here ghost," Jazz say threatening her. "If this is some trick to harm my brother for Vlad or whoever might of hied you, I'll make sure when we send you back you'll be a puddle of goo."

Ember was immature, but even she knew when it was time to stop being a hard headed bitch. "Easy Red. I'm not working for anyone and Vlad stopped contacting me because of 'reasons'. Guess he preferred cheaper mercenaries. Totally creep, has pictures of this Maddie chick everywhere."

"I know." Jazz said embarrassed at the thought of Vlad's obsession over her mom. "That's my mom. Vlad is a bit of a fruit loop."

"A bit?" Ember laughs. "Understatement of the century. The dude is a total spaz too."

The two girls shared a laugh until Ember began to cough in pain. Jazz reaches for the med kit, but Ember stops her. "None of those pills please. They gave me a serious nightmare... Worse than usual."

"Ghosts can have those?" Jazz asks surprised.

"Yeah..." Ember says as a cold chill goes down her spin. "We're just like you, we were human after all at one point... Or at least I was."

"That's something I've always wanted to ask you, I mean ghosts in general." Jazz says with interest. "Who were you before... You know..."

"I don't trust you either." Ember says flatly. "That's something for me to know and only me."

Jazz doesn't press the issue. It wasn't a light topic to bring up, especially to a enemies of yours. "Then can you at least tell me about what woke you up? The nightmare?"

Ember sighs and looks back down at her bandages and the medkit with the pills that took away some of the pain. After all this she might as well try to show some gratitude. Hell it might make Red go away and leave her be. "It's fuzzy." She replies. "I just remember a tall old man with a big gun. Then I remember running and the fire. That's all I remember."

"That's strange." Jazz says. "Nightmares are always strange. Its usually you're mind trying to tell you something. Or trying to help you remember what your trying to forget."

"I'd rather not remember getting shot and left for dead in the Ghost Zone, Thank you." Ember says bluntly.

"Lets change the subject then." Jazz says after finding herself in a practical dead end. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm better than before." Ember says positively. "Those pain killers helped out a lot. But it will take some time before I'm able to leave. I still feel the holes in my stomach."

"I bet." Jazz says with a blank expression. Secretly she enjoys the fact that she does feel those holes. No one hurts her family, especially her brother.

"I take it you're his keeper right?" Ember asks her out of the blue as she looks over at a picture of Danny, Sam, Tucker, and Jazz tacked on the wall near Jazz.

"Excuse me?" Jazz asks her a bit offended at the question.

"You know, his over protective sibling." She says clarifying herself as she takes the picture off the wall and glares at it with a strange expression out of the ordinary for her. "I already know you are just by the way you act. Its cute, I respect that. I'm like that with Kitty some times, but usually she does it for me. We gotta stick together out there in the Ghost Zone, you know?"

"Oh..." Jazz replies, caught off guard at the question. "Thanks?"

Ember apologizes, "I'm sorry Red. Things have just been rough for me. You're a good sister for wanting to protect your brother. Ugh this so isn't me, these meds have to have a warning or something on them."

Jazz chuckles at Ember attempt to back track and make it sound like the pills were doing the talking and not her. But she still had her doubts about her.

"I know when someone is a bit under the weather and thats not it." Jazz says calling her out. "You mean that though? Honestly."

Ember says nothing and crosses her arms to sulk. Jazz rolls her eyes and smile, "You don't have to say anything Ember. Thank you. That's very kind of you."

"Yeah yeah." Ember says trying to play off what she said. "Just don't get use to it. I'm not hiding anything and I don't want to fight either. I just want to get better and get back to doing what I love."

"Just keep playing tough girl, Ember." Jazz says teasing her with a smirk before changing the subject to something a bit more Ember friendly. "So you and Kitty are close?"

"Very." Ember says with a smile. "She was my first friend when I got to the Ghost Zone. Her and Johnny were from my time, before we crosses over. So we click pretty well. At least me and her do, Johnny not so much." She looks at the picture and points at the goth girl next to Danny and Tucker. "What about you Red? Do you have anyone besides your brother your close to? A BFF maybe?"

"Not really." Jazz answers truthfully. "I'm not really in touch with my generation."

"Neither is the goth bitch." Ember says rudely as she takes a sip from the cola on the table.

"Sam. Her name is Sam." Jazz scolds her. "And yes, she doesn't. But that doesn't make us friends."

"How so?" Ember inquires.

"Sam is a acquired taste." Jazz replies as she choices her words carefully. "We didn't start to talk until after you and the other two ghost tried to take all the men away. Though I won't call her a friend of mine. She might end up being Danny's girlfriend soon if he realizes it."

Ember's heart froze slightly and she tried to conceal the fact by keeping her mouth shut. "You don't seem to thrilled about it." Ember asks.

"No." Jazz says as she relaxes in her chair. "I'm not. But what do you care?"

"Just passing the time." Ember replies. "You're not half bad Red."

"Likewise." She says as the sound of the front door opening and the voices of the gang echo upstairs. "Trying to warm up to me huh?"

"No." Ember says coolly as she puts the picture down on the table. "Just trying to get to know my captors and pass the time."

Jazz shoots her a smirk, "You can check out anytime you like. We're not you're jailers."

The sound of the front door opening and the voices of the trio echo through the house. "Oh really?" Ember asks sarcastically. "Then the next time we chit-chat don't be packing a heater." Ember says pointing at Jazz and winking at her as the sound of stomping feet cut their conversation short. 'How did she know?' Jazz asks herself as a smirk formed on Embers face.

"I'm not hear to fight." Ember chuckled, "I already told your warden that." As she finished that sentence Danny walks into the room. He's surprised to see Jazz in his room let along talking to Ember.

"Jazz?" He asks. "Everything all right?"

"We're fine babypop." Ember replies for her. "I didn't know you had a sister. She a halfa too?"

Jazz wished she was more than anyone could ever believe. But Danny rolled his eyes and ignored the last bit of that comment. "I'll let you two talk I'm going to make myself something to eat. I'm starving." Jazz says as she leaves his room and closing the door behind her.

"What did you do to make Jazz come in here?" Danny asks cutting to the point.

"I had a nightmare." Ember replies truthfully. "Don't believe me then you can ask your sister Red, babypop."

"You have nightmares?"

"Nightmares bad enough to warrant your sister bringing a ecto-blaster in here." Ember says with a smirk. "I don't blame her. She needs every advantage she can get with me, unlike you. But besides that, how was you're time out of prison warden?" Ember laughs and takes a sip of cola.

"Warden?" Danny asks sarcastically. "I'm not your jailer. In fact I wouldn't consider this a jail at all, even with all the gadgets and weaponry laying around."

"Take it easy phantom. I'm teasing you." Ember replies with a smirk. "These digs aren't bad and you're sister Red was good to talk to. Your lucky to have a sibling that's looking out for her. I just have Kitty and Johnny."

"You ok?" Danny questions her, putting his guard up. This didn't sound like the Ember he knew at all.

"Easy up babypop." Ember says. "Can't a girl be herself with out someone calling them a liar or thinking she's going to betray them? I may be evil, but I'm not a low life like that Plasimius guy."

"I wouldn't hold you in the same regards as him." Danny replies making her raise her eye brows. "Vlad is just a creep and a self centered moron. You're neither of those. A bit wild, but not a Vlad at all."

"At least someone here is nice to me." Ember replies smiling at Danny. She reaches out her hand to his and grasps it warmly. "Ugh these things are getting to me. I know they are."

Danny looks at the pills and smirks. Frostbite told him that they didn't have a side effect in ghosts or humans. Amazing how far they had came in the development of medicine. It was strange seeing one of his enemies like this. Wounded in his bed and holding his hand with eyes that spoke wonders to him. He didn't have to press her for a thank you anymore after gazing into them, They showed a wonder of gratitude. This was a far cry from what he was use to and wished that this peaceful Ember would last forever. Then he remembered what he and the rest of Team Phantom discussed. His expression changed and he let go of Ember's hand.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to-" Ember silences him.

"No... You're fine." Ember says calmly. "I shouldn't have. Just... Just don't tell anyone. Ok Babypop?"

Danny laughs, "Do you honestly care what all those other ghosts think?"

"No! No way!" She lies in embarrassment. "It's those pills talking. I know they are."

"Keep telling yourself that Ember." Danny says to her with a smile. "You don't need there approval, not for any reason at all."

Ember felt touched hearing that and smiles back at him. "Thank you babypop. It means a lot honestly. You're sister is sweet too, both of you are."

He chuckles, "Ember Mclain hasn't called me dip stick in hours and is giving out compliments."

"It's these pills. I'm telling you!" She laughs with him. Danny looks at his watch and realizes its around one in the morning. He was surprised time has flown by that fast, but hey time flies when you're having fun.

"Keep telling yourself that Ember." Danny says in a low tone as Ember laughs before looking back at her and saying "Look I'm going to be downstairs on the couch with Sam and Tucker. If you need anything just call, ok? Do you need anything before I go?"

"No." She replies. "But one thing I got to ask you dipstick."

"Had to throw that in there didn't you?" Danny pokes at her. "Yes?"

"You and Red, I mean your sister, always been this close?" Ember asks him innocently. "She's your keeper isn't she?"

Danny sighs and rolls his eyes. "We were little kids yeah, But its been making a come back. As for my keeper, No. I can take care of myself."

"You're lucky phantom." She says with some envy in her voice. "You're lucky to have someone like that in your life."

"Hehe, hard to believe someone would say that. Especially you." Danny replies with a slight smile as he realizes what he has. "And its Danny. Or whatever other nickname you can come up with."

"Hehe, whatever you say Danny." Ember said. "She reminds me of Kitty. That's why. Overbearing and a little bit overprotective, especially over Johnny. Kind of like the goth girl over you."

Danny turns red with embarrassment. "Sam is just trying to protect me."

"Keep telling yourself that Danny." Ember winks at him.

He smiles at her use of his own words. Danny walks out the room and right into Jazz who was listening in on the conversation between him and Ember. Jazz smiles, "You're a sweet heart when you want to be huh?"

"Whatever." Danny replies.

Jazz laughs and gets to business. "She told me about the nightmare, A old man with a big gun and running. Then the fire. Any idea what she means by that?"

Danny thinks for a minute and comes up with nothing. "No idea. I don't know any old men with big guns. Sounds like something she encounter before she crossed over. Any details?"

Jazz shakes her head, "None. We pretty much talk about each other before you got back. She's not half bad, just rough around the edges. Do those meds have any side effects?"

"No, Why?"

Jazz snaps her fingers and smiles, "Right again! Yay! Even so, I can't completely take what she has to say at face value but I can't say she's out right lying either."

"I believe her." Danny replies. "Her eyes. Her eyes gave her away. I'm sure of it."

"You do?" Jazz says surprised. "I couldn't trust someone who's tried to kill me multiple times."

"I do. I still have some questions for her and I can trust her, but does she trust me?" Danny asks both to her and himself.

"Ember's hiding a lot under her tough girl routine." Jazz adds. "But she'll open up."

"I hope your right on that." Danny replies with a smirk.

Jazz hugs him in response, "Thanks little brother. I'm going to bed. Sleep well."

"Don't forget about the laser." Danny reminds her.

"How do you see that?!" Jazz exclaims.

A couple of hours pass and Danny lays silently in deep sleep on the couch in the living room. Sam and Tucker were laid out on the opposing couches in deep sleep as well. It had been a long day of fun for these teenagers and tomorrow brought more for them. It was 4 o'clock in the morning in Amity Park and all was quiet, even the ghosts managed to not show up at the witching hour.

Then his ghost sense went off awaking Danny. But instead of the sight of the annoying box ghost, the droning of Technus, or the arrogant smile of Skulker. The slim pale figure of Ember appeared with his blanket over her shoulders covering her rocker attire stood before him.

"Danny? You awake?" She asks him quietly.

"Huh?... Wha?... Yeah I'm awake." He yawned. "Hey! You're flying. Thats great!"

"I know right? I feeling much better. But I'm still a little wooze." She admits. "I want to get some fresh air... Want to come with me?"

Danny snickers, "We're going to have to get approval from Warden Fenton. But I don't think he'll have a issue with it."

Ember rolls her eyes and laughs extending her hand to him, "Come on dipstick. This is my favorite time of night."

"Sure." Danny agrees with a smile as he gets himself off the couch and phases through the door so they wouldn't wake up Sam and Tucker. But Sam was already awake and a look of angry took over her face.

"I can't let her be alone with him. That's asking for trouble." Sam says as she takes a portable Fenton Ray from the cushion of the couch. "I'm coming Danny." She says as she walks out the door and into the dark night.


	4. Chapter 4: Changing Tides

_**BAM! Another Chapter. I'm loving the attention for this guys and I whole heartedly thank ya'll for being so responsive and giving me reviews! A shout out to Kixen for review, I love your work by the way! Along with Johnny who has reviewed each chapter, Saw your Dev-art And I like your work on there man!  
**_ _ **I'll be getting into Vlad soon in my story and I know what I wrote was out of character but there is a reason in my view and I'll go into it in another chapter.**_

 _ **Enjoy guys!  
With Love ~Dresner**_

* * *

 _ **Chapter 4: Changing Tides**_  
The cool morning air swept against Danny's skin softly as he and Ember walk down the sidewalks through the quiet sleeping city of Amity Park. 4 o'clock in the morning on a Sunday was always deadly quiet as everyone was still dreaming in their beds and so was he on a rare night or two. Usually at this time he was caught in a pitched fight with some vermin of the ghost zone variety.

But not tonight, no, He is instead walking side by side with one of the ghost zone's most high profile entity. It was a nice change of pace for him and frankly he enjoyed it and secretly Ember did as well.

The two walked for a hour until reaching the town park. Her eyes lite up and took Danny down the paths leading into a small wooded area.

"It's been forever since I've enjoyed a walk in the woods." She says as the leafs from the oak trees fall from above. "I wish I could feel the cool air against my skin again. I miss it babypop."

"You're calling me that a lot, you know?" Danny points out as the wind sweeps through the trees.

"Shut up." Ember teases him as leaf falls out of the trees and lands in her open hand. She brings it to her face and trying to smell the scent of a fresh autumn oak leaf. But she could smell nothing and couldn't feel it in her hand either. It was a harsh reminder of the reality that she lives. A tear comes down her face and falls in front of Danny.

"Ember?" He asks her concerned. "Whats wrong?"

"Nothing..." She says trying to mask her feelings. "Just... Just reminded of something I wish I could feel."

"The leaf?" Danny asks obliviously.

"Duh." She replies in her trade mark rudeness. "I wish I would feel it again and the wind. I can hear it, but I can't feel it. I wish I could, I honestly wish I could. But I don't know if..."

"Don't know if what?" Danny interjects. "Do these remind you of something you miss?"

"Yes..." Ember says rapping her arms around herself, a sign that she was trying to close herself to him.

"Ember," Danny begins with concern and apprehension. "You've been very open with me and I appreciate it. But I'm still wondering-"

"I'm not using you. I'm not working for that creep Vlad. AND I AM NOT LYING TO YOU!" Ember explodes but still keeping her arms rapped around her. Her body language told a different story then what her flaming hair was say. It wasn't a aggression, but defense. Danny stops them and Ember notices a change of demeanor that she never saw in the halfa before.

"I know your not." He says firmly. "If you were Jazz would have told me. I trust you enough to walk with you not in ghost form."

It was a slap to the face to Ember and she couldn't respond to it right away. The situation was like this and it was testing her mentally. Ember was use to being cast aside and treated less than human, even before she crossed over. But she still couldn't shake the idea that she was going to get stabbed in the back by the 'Hero'. After all she was the 'Villain'.

"What are you wondering about me?" Ember questions him sharply. "The nightmares? The guy who left me for dead? What is it then Phantom?"

"What do you miss the most?" Danny asks her, silencing her. "What made you tear up right in front of me?"

Ember starts walking and with a heavy sign shakes her head. "Ember!" Danny calls to her as she walks away from him down the wooded path.

She starts to cry and runs down the path at a brisk pace. Danny follows and calls her name as he chases after her until they reached a small bridge crossing the pond near the end of the tree line. Ember sat underneath a large oak tree with her face buried in her arms crying. "Ember?" Danny says as he approaches her.

"Ember." He says as he gets closer to her and the tree. "Ember?"

She sniffles but doesn't respond. Danny sits down beside her as she cries trying not to be on the receiving end of her eventual fury. But the fury never came as, as awkward as it was for him, reached over to her shoulder and hugged her. Ember looked up and with out second guessing laid her head on him. She cleared her tears and wiped them on his shirt before saying one word: "Home."

"Where is home?" Danny asks her as he tries to process what is happening.

"Centralia..." She whispers. "Pennsylvania..."

The sun was coming up soon as the sky turned a dark blue and the stars began to fade into the on coming sun. "I haven't seen the sun come up in forever." Ember whispers as she lets go of the tension inside of her and raps her arms around him.

"I haven't enjoyed it in forever." Danny agrees.

The amber light of the sun began to break through the sky high lighting the cloud cover above them. The beauty of it impressed Danny and Ember as they cuddled under the tree.

"Danny?" Ember says.

"Yeah?" Danny replies.

"Thank you." Ember says looking deep into his eyes. "Thank you for saving me and thank you for talking to me. Just thank you for everything."

"You're welcome Ember." Danny say with a smile. "Hey you used my name. Haha."

The sun begins the rise over the city skyline sending orange rays to the pond turning it orange. It was beautiful and it made Ember sigh with nostalgia and joy. She turns to Danny and gazes into his light blue eyes. For a moment she could feel herself swimming in their warm waters. Was this the warm and tender that she sung about in her song? It was all so new to her, yet so familiar to her. She was in his debt for saving her, but their was something more between her and Danny and she could feel it.

Danny gazed into her ghostly green eyes nearly losing himself in them as well. 'I can't let myself get lost in her. I can't get close to my enemy... What would Paulina or Sam or Valerie think?' His mind grew silent and he could feel a warm tingling feeling expanding through his chest and out through his finger tips. It was a feeling he only felt with Sam and the fact that Ember, one of his own enemies, made him feel the same way threw him off guard. But Danny didn't go back on his feelings and slowly the two came closer to one another.

"DANNY!" The voice of Sam screamed from near by breaking up their moment. "ABOVE YOU!"

From out of the cloud cover came the screaming battle cry of Valerie Grey in her red ghost hunting gear firing her lasers down at him and Ember. Danny quickly pulls Ember and himself behind the large oak tree while the electric tearing of laser rifles echo around them from all directions. "Stay here!" He tells Ember as he changes into his ghost form.

"I'll be back!" He tells her before he soars into the air to fight off the angry ghost hunter dodging her blasts from her laser rifle.

Shooting straight for Valerie Danny is cut off from his flight path by another energy beam, this time from his 10 o'clock low. Another red suited ghost hunter fires a salvo of ecto-lasers at him. And another from 4 o'clock high!

"Woah!" Danny shouts as he tired to dodge all the blasts at one. "At what point did you decide to bring friends?"

"Drones make the perfect partner for every ghost hunter!" Valerie replies as three more show up firing bursts of energy beams at him. "Though you could just hide in the dark huh?"

"I don't have to hide from a crummy shot like you!" He teases as he fires at the first drone he sees, sending it off into the opposite direction. "No more one on one chicken?"

Valerie grunts with rage and dives on him from above and lets out a devastating barrage from all directions causing Danny to dive down toward the tree line for cover. Sam fires her ecto-pistol at the one in the rear, The real Valerie, to throw off her ability to control the drones properly. The bursts of green ecto-plasma scream past her almost knocking her off her board. From up there she couldn't see who was firing at her, but she could see where it was coming from. She sent two drones down to source of the blast and two more behind the source to cut off anyway he could escape. Valerie and remaining one remained in the sky to act as support if the Ghost kid escaped.

"I got you phantom!" She screams down below as her drones leaped into action.

On the ground Sam ran toward the opposing side of the wood line to get to a better spot to cover Danny. She runs like it was the mad dash to freedom and in her blind sprint was thrown to the ground by a low handing branch. Her pistol skids in the dirt near a fallen tree and she quickly crawled on all fours till she reached it. But by them the first pair of drones jumped her and took aim. Sam doesn't give up and leaps over the tree just as the sound of a laser echos through the wood line. She snatches the pistol and in one quick motion pops out from the cover of the tree ready to fire, but the drones were gone.

Puzzled she scans around with the pistol drawn until spotting the wreckage of the drone laying on the ground in a blaze. "What the? Danny?"

"You're welcome!" Ember shouts trying to hold herself up against a tree. "A little help here!"

"You? You did that?" Sam asks in astonishment.

"I'm serious help me here." Ember replies falling to her knees. "That took a bit more than I thought it would."

Sam couldn't process it. None of it made sense...

She fires a burst above Ember destroying two drones trying to jump her then runs to aid her. "I think... I think we're even right?" Ember says tiredly as Sam throws her over her shoulder in a firemans carry.

"You went for a walk to?" Ember asks her in a tired almost drunken slur.

"Did those med have something in them?" Sam counters.

"I've been asking that all day!" Ember chuckles. "No I don't know. I might not be as hot as I thought I was. I need to rest."

"Don't pass out now, We have to get out of the line of fire before you can do that." Sam says as she watches Valarie and the last drone scream across the sky.

"You went for a walk or are you worried about babypop?" Ember asks as Sam carries her toward the end of the tree line toward the entrance to of the park.

"I don't know what to think." Sam says as they reach the beginning of the treeline path. Putting Ember against a near by tree she looks up into the sky to see that Danny had destroyed the last drone and squared up on Valerie. "Why? You've been trying to kill him for months."

"Never tired to kill him. Only get him out of the way so I can be the star I should have been when I was alive." Ember replies. "I never wanted to kill him either. He reminds me of someone I use to know back home. I was a outcast like him, like you..."

Before she could continue Danny lands next to them with a tired expression on his face. "She was tracking us just a couple of blocks before the park." Danny says breathing deeply. "Those drones of hers are intense when she turns on this nero interface program. Almost got me but she ran away. We have to get out of her, both of you. You two OK?"

Both the girls nodded, "Ember saved me. She took out the drones trying to jump me. I guess they thought I was you after firing at Valerie."

"Really?" Danny asked surprised looking over at the now passed out Ember. "She did?"

Sam nods and picks up Ember while Danny takes the other side. "What are you doing out here? Last time I checked you were passed out on the couch."

"I needed fresh air too." Sam replies simply.

"Its because of her, isn't it?" Danny says motioning his head toward Ember.

"Maybe." Sam say sarcastically. "It isn't like she's one of your enemies."

"She just saved your life, You might as well be thankful." Danny replies rudely, shutting her down. "Besides, She's not as bad as you think."

' _I was a outcast like him, like you...'_ Ember's words echoed through her head. They rang true with her with their innocents and truth. But could Ember really be telling the truth about herself?

Sam gives a deep sigh and gives way, "She said she was a outcast like us back home. What was home for her?"

"Centralia, Pennsylvania." Danny tells her with a serious expression.

"NO WAY!" Sam says with excitement. "The real Silent Hill?"

"The very one." Danny replies. "We need to get back to my place. I need to sleep, we all do. We'll figure out the rest of this mess later."

"What do you mean Danny?" Sam asks.

"Ember's telling the truth, about everything. Her and Jazz spoke and so far she's sticking to the story she told her." Danny replies. "But one thing I have to check.."

"Whats that?"

"You up for a trip to Wisconsin?" He asks her as the sun breaks completely though the clouds lightening the new day.


	5. Chapter 5: Wolf's Den

**_Another chapter for you all to enjoy. Thank you once again for all your views and reviews. Please review when you favorite or follow. I love feed back!  
Enjoy!_**

 ** _With Love ~Dresner_**

* * *

 _ **Wisconsin: 11:00pm (2300)**_

The massive mansion of the late Wisconsin Dairy King looked more like something out of a fast food joints bad attempt at marketing to kids. But in the dark autumn night it appeared like something out of a Romanian horror movie with Vlad Masters as Count Dracula. The cold rain from southern Canada moved in a hour ago and brought with it a heavy thunder storm, along with the perfect blanket of cover for Sam and Tucker to close in toward the back of the mansion. The wet grass soon led to mud and, thankfully, for Sam her goth combat boots gave her a advantage of not sinking into it unlike Tucker and his sneakers.

"Why rain?!" Tucker exclaims in agony. "I haven't invested in anything thats water proof!"

"Tucker!" Sam scolds him. "Danny should have the back door unlocked for us. Once we get inside your precious geek stuff will be fine." Sam, like any respectable Goth, adored the rain more than anything. But she was still human and the constant tapping of rain on your back triggered the primal instincts to find shelter

They reach the door and to Tucker's dismay the door was still locked as the storm began to pick up its pace.

"Clueless, This is Goth, Come in." Sam calls Danny over the Fenton Phones.

"Why am I clueless again?" Danny replies.

"Why isn't the door unlocked, How about that?" Sam snaps.

"I thought you loved the rain?" Danny jokes.

"I do when I have a umbrella!"

Danny laughs as the clicking of the lock brighten Tucker's soul as he pushes Sam through the door nearly trampolining her. Danny catches them both and phases them through the floor to the bottom floor near Vlad's lab. He sets them down gently before returning upstairs to cover their tracks. Once he returns he quickly hushes them and they move deeper into the underground lab of his archenemy. From what Tucker and Danny could tell they were in a chemistry lab where Vlad would work on different concoctions for serums. The beakers and burners made it obvious.

"You sure about this Danny?" Tucker asks him as they exit the chemistry lab and head down a stair way going deeper into the lab. "We're in the wolfs den..."

"The only way we can be sure Ember isn't lying is to check." Sam says firmly.

"And to find out if Vlad put out a hit on her." Danny interjects. "And if so, then why and who?"

"Right. So break into Vlad's lab and download everything he has." Tucker says as the stair end and a long hallway begins. "So simple."

"Its not like Vlad was expecting us to barge right up to his front door." Sam remarks on the almost nonexistent security.

"He's so sure of himself." Danny says with disgust at Vlad's arrogance.

The hallways begins to expand and the voices of two people echo through the stainless steel laboratory walls. Once they reached the end they saw a cluster of machine, computers, and processors surrounding a massive ghost portal in full operation with the green glow of the ghost zone in its center.

"Status on Expedition 027." Vlad orders his AI Computer system to report.

"027 is in rout toward the portal honey, ETA 5 minutes." The AI replies, unnerving Danny as he recognizes the voice of that of his mother Maddie.

"Status on Drone 264."

"Drone 264 is circling-"

A large man with burning green hair steps through the portal with a duffel back in his right hand and large framed pistol in the other. Skulker, The self declared greatest hunter in all of the Ghost Zone, keeps a concerned look on his face as he throws the duffel at Masters feet.

"All I found at the ruins was this Duffel, the bike, and this." Skulker says throwing Vlad the pistol. "I don't want anything of his in my collection."

"Afraid of a little bad omen?" Vlad replies as he hands the pistol to near by robotic arm. "Send it to the smelter to be melted. He won't be needing this anymore."

"I'd rather not be the one he comes for when he turns up." Skulker replies as he checks his personal data base.

"If he found what I believe he did," Vlad explains. "Then he will be there and will never return to this world. Now the question is how did he get there."

"The Elseawarness isn't just another world like my realm or others that you may stumble on." Skulker adds getting closer to Vlad until they are face to face. "It finds you and no matter how hard you try, how many ghosts and drone you send, and all the money in the world you a mass. You will never find it Plasmius."

"I beg to differ Skulker." Vlad replies darkly. "I will find it and if I don't I will make my own right here on Earth and I will rule it like the King I am destined to be."

He raises his hand and presses it against Skulker's chest. "You're payment will be provided by Drone. Prototype EMP weaponry curtsy of my newly acquired company's skunk works, Axion Labs. Do try it out against Danial and his friends when you have the chance. It should even the odds." Once he finished he pushes Skulker into the Ghost Zone and turns off the portal. He lets out a long sigh and turns to the holographic Maddie Fenton.

"What's wrong sweetie?" She asks him.

"Nothing my dear." He says changing back into regular Vlad Masters. "Only wondering if my search for this 'New World' will bare fruit. But for now I must focus on other endeavors."

The hologram hugs hims and opens her eyes over his shoulder to see the trio hiding in the shadows. "Hi Sweetie!" She exclaims waving.

Vlad turns around to see them as well and quickly transforms back into his ghostly form. He lets out a burst of ecto-energy at the trio scattering them like cockroaches. "Breaking and entering Danial?" Vlad yells to him.

"I shut the door before I came in. I wasn't raised in a barn you know!" Danny replies as he fires back at Vlad with a burst of his own. Vlad counters and closes in for close quarters combat throwing punches and kicks. Sam and Tucker slip by to the closest door way toward Vlad's super computer.

Vlad throws hard ectoplasmic infused punches at Danny's stomach and face throwing him into the walls of the lab. But before Vlad could give the killing blows Danny phases through the walls and through the ceiling into the main floor of the manor. Vlad follows and quickly begins a blistering assault on Danny giving him no time to recover.

"You might as well be with your idiot Father raising you!" He shouts as he over shot his latest punch giving Danny the opportunity to use his momentum against him and throw him through the back door into the mud outside.

"I don't have time for this Plasmius!" Danny shouts as he phases through the door to meet Vlad. "What was that about with Skulker?"

"I could ask you the same thing Danial." He replies. "What brought you hear to my home? Are you here to finally renounce Jack?"

"I came here to find out what happen to Ember Mclain." Danny says as he charges his energy beams. "The only person I know that would out right kill someone would be you."

"Out right?" Vlad laughs. "No. I kill who I have to. And for Ember? No, she was a pawn, yes, but not a loose end."

"I don't believe you Plasmius." Danny says firing at him. Vlad dodges the attack and throws mud in Danny's face to blind him.

"You know I wouldn't do the dirty work myself. A king never has to lift a finger when he has soliders to do his bidding." Vlad responds as he fires back at Danny throwing him into the mud. "But Ms. Mclain isn't someone I would waste my resources on. She's nothing but a welp like the rest of those second rate ghosts you call 'enemies'."

"You had someone leave her for dead in the ghost zone with six slugs of iron in her stomach!" Danny shouts as he fires back at him with more energy beams.

"Iron? Left for dead?" Vlad questions as he throws up a energy shield. "Such crude forms of Alchemy. As for leaving her for dead, there is only one person I know who would and he is no longer with us."

"WHO?" Danny shouts as he runs toward him.

"It doesn't matter Danial." Vlad replies phasing through Danny. "What matters is where he went and what he found when he got there."

"How do I know you not lying?" Danny shouts as he shoots him in the legs with his ice powers freezing him to the mud. "You've lied to get your fortune, Lied to get your power, and lied to the world about who you really are. Who should I believe you?"

"Because Danial," Vlad explains. "The only person I would out right kill would be your Father."

Vlad fires a powerful blast throwing Danny through the back door sending him skating across the floor. Vlad quickly phases through the ice and with break neck speed flies over and phases him and Danny though the floor back to the lab. Danny was drained from the brutal attack and tried to get to his feet as Vlad activates his ghost portal.

"Unlike the dirty mercenary who you're looking for didn't mean to kill Ember." Vlad explains as he types on a computer. "Which is rare for him. Usually he kills with out discrimination. Now unlike him I kill with discrimination and Jack is one of those people I would enjoy killing for what he did to me. But I won't simply kill him, Danial."

The portal opened revealing the dark green swirling vortex leading to the ghost zone. "No, I don't want to simply kill him. I want to make him suffer. I want to take everything he gained over the last 20 years. I want the life he took from me. That Danial is what I want. I want to take his wife, his life, and I want to turn you against him. And once I do that he will beg for me to put him out of his misery. The very misery I went through when he gave me the worse case of ecto acne ever recorded. Now ask yourself this Danial, Why would I kill a wannabee pop star? Pure hatred? No. I would rather keep the ghosts alive and living in fear of my wrath. Remember loyal can be won through trust or fear."

"You're a fucking lunatic." Danny curses at him.

Vlad smirks and takes Danny by the collar. "This grid point I selected leads toward the edge of the Ghost Zone toward a little place I like to call 'Valley of Horror'. If I remember correctly you haven't mapped the Ghost Zone out completely. A well deserved punishment for breaking and entering, don't you think?"

A large beam of energy throws Vlad into the portal and it closes quickly. In the darkness he could see the smirk of Sam and Tucker tapping on his PDA. "You ok?" She asks him.

"Thanks." Danny replies as he looks over to see the Maddie AI standing by the portal. "And thanks Mom."

"I hacked his system and the AI while you two were fighting." Tucker replies.

"Ugh wish you had hit him with that thing before." Danny says grabbing his side.

"Better late then never, right?" Sam replied as she helped carry him to the Super computer.

Tucker orders the AI to open any files that they saw as important and found nothing current on contracting Ember. As for the Identity of the mercenary who nearly killed her... All that was found was a note with one word on it: Loose end.

"No pictures. No description. Nothing. The guy is a ghost in more than one sense of the word." Tucker remarks as he searches through the files.

"Vlad asked about a Drone. 264 maybe?" Danny remembers. "Check on the status of that any and any other. Skulker and Vlad mentioned something about something called the 'Elseawareness' and some kind of ruins."

Tucker types into the key board for Drones and found 8 of them. With only two with live feeds. One was circling over a large wooded area and another over some ruins somewhere in the ghost zone.

"Look! It's Johnny's bike!" Sam points out.

"Weird." Danny remarks. "Johnny wouldn't be caught dead with out it. He's practically married to it. See if you can get a better look at the site.

Tucker zooms in to the area around the bike to see a small fire set up with a sleeping mat. It was a small camp that looked like it was abandon for some time. The ruins it appeared to be something out of Ancient Rome with large columns of marble and large buildings of limestone.

"I don't recognize this place." Danny says. "Move the camera around to see if there is anything we can use as a reference."

As soon as Danny finishes his sentence, the feed was cut and the status of for the drone was Red.

"It's gone Danny." Tucker tells him as a green blip shows up on his PDA. "Download completed. I got whatever files I could that were free."

"We need to get out of here. Who knows if Vlad has a way to get back here." Danny replies phasing his friends through the ceiling and taking them back home.

* * *

 _ **Amity Park: 7:00am**_

Ember sits on the roof of the Fenton Works enjoying the sight of Autumn taking over the city. She lays back and gazes up at the beautiful blue skies. It was peaceful and really that's something she wanted deep down inside, Some peace in her life.

"Hello?" Jazz's voice echoed from inside the Fenton command center. "Hi Danny. Did you find anything at Vlad's?"

Ember's ears perk up and she listens intently when the name of Vlad came out of Jazz's lips.

"Here let me put you on speaker. I'm trying to clean up around here." Jazz says as she puts her phone on speaker.

"As I was saying." Danny replies. "I found some info on who hurt Ember. She was telling the truth. It wasn't Vlad and she hasn't worked with him since she first showed up here."

"Wow you were right for the first time in your life." Jazz says sarcastically.

' _Thank you babypop for believing me.'_ Ember thought to herself with a smile.

"What about the guy who left her out there?" Jazz says as she cleans some equipment.

"No name or face. Just some Mercenary that no one, even Skulker, didn't want to talk about. Must be a bad guy, a really bad guy." Danny replies as Jazz cleans. "We found Johnny's bike. When Ember is better we'll grab it and give it back to Johnny. Speaking of her, how is she?"

"She's alright." Jazz replies. "Mostly sleeping. She's better than before, but not 100%. Danny, what are you going to do with her now that you found this out? You going to go forward with the plan?"

' _Plan?' Ember asks herself with concern._

"I don't know." Danny replies unsure of himself. "I'm having mixed feelings about it. It doesn't feel right to use her condition to make a friend."

"Would you rather have her trying to hurt you? I wouldn't." Jazz replies flatly. "The Damsel in distress card won't come up again."

"True. I don't know." Danny says with a sigh. "I'll talk with her when I get there."

' _Damsel in distress? Plan?'_ Ember thinks to herself with her angry slowly building.

"I'm just a pawn right?" Ember says out loud as she reappears in front of Jazz.

Jazz screams and falls to the ground. "Is that right PHANTOM?! Is that right RED?" Ember shouts at her and the phone.

"Ember wait!" Danny shouts over the phone. Ember shoots the phone with her energy beams. Jazz reaches behind her back, but there wasn't anything there. She left the Ecto pistol in her room. She curses herself as Ember closes in on her.

"What was the plan?!" Ember demands powering up her energy blasts and her hair turning into a furious fire storm. "You going to make me into a pawn like Plasimius tried to do? You going to put me in that box of his and torture me till I break? TOUGH LUCK!"

"No! Its not what you think!" Jazz shouts as she tries to crawl away.

"I'm just some kind of loser that you can build up just to break down huh?" Ember shouts as tears begin to bubble on her face. "Huh!? ANSWER ME!"

"Ember no! It's not like that! We're trying to help you! We're your friends!" Jazz shouts back. But Ember doesn't listen...

Jazz crawls until she bumps into a control panel and knocks a calendar into her lap. Ember looks down at it to see the date, September 1st. The pop star stops and her energy beams dissipate...

Tears begin to stream down her face and hair returns to normal. Jazz sits frozen with shock as Ember cries in front of her. "Ember?" She asks her in a whisper.

"Ember? Are you?..."

"I'm going home..." Ember replies as she slowly levitates out of the Command Center.

Danny returns a hour later with a expression of fear at the fate of his sister. He finds her in the same spot she was when Ember flew away. She explains everything to him and the others quickly. When he asks where she went he simply told her what Ember told her.

"She's going home." Jazz says quietly with some confusion. "The ghost zone I guess. Shouldn't be hard to find her then."

Sam looks over at the calendar at its date and month then turns to Danny. "You know her song Remember right?" Sam asks him.

"How could I forget it?" He replies remembering Tucker's awful singing.

"What was the first line after the intro?" She asks him.

" "It was, It was September" I think." Danny recites from memory. "What does that have to do with this?"

"It's September 1st the beginning of Autumn. Her song is odiously a break up song and today has to be something important for her to just storm off like that." Sam explains. "She isn't like Nocturne or any of those other ghosts. She's use to be us, flesh and blood human. So she use to have a home, now where is home?"

"Centralia..." Danny says as realization hit him like a on coming train. "We have to get her back..."


	6. Chapter 6: Home Coming

_**Sorry for the delay. Work has been picking up and that means late nights. I hope you enjoy this chapter and what I did with Ember's back story. It is really really tempting to use a OC in this, but I'm trying to limit that dramatically since apparently everyone on here hates OCs.  
Either way, Enjoy! And Review, Everyone Favorites and Follows but no review. Please Review.  
**_

 _ **With Love~ Dresner**_

* * *

 _ **Chapter 6: Home Coming**_  
From the air she felt free and the only thing that she wished was that she could actually feel it. The air rushing pasted her face and in her hair. From up there she saw endless forest for as far as the eye could see. Then she saw it, Route 61, the road home to Centralia. Amazingly it was well kept from what she could see from above until she looked further and saw that Route 61 turned away from her home. She lands to see that the old highway was now covered in graffiti and chunks of the road were cut in half.

Ember remembers her Dad telling her about the fire when she alive. In 1962 the fire began after the fire department were burning trash or doing a controlled burn, whatever they were burning the fire kept burning. And burning. And burning till it reached the coal in the hills. The fire burned for decades under the small town of Centralia and eventually the town was abandon in 1980, the year she died.

She lets out a long sigh and quietly walks down the graffiti covered highway back home. Her real home.

* * *

The group race across the sky in the specter speeder to save time. The trip toward New England wasn't long at all until Tucker started to complain about his ass falling asleep halfway through the trip.

"Are we there yet?" Tucker complains as he hooks up his PDA to the charger port.

"The GPS says we are three miles from Centralia." Sam replies. "The spectral radar is wigging out too, wow. I've never seen it trip out this bad."

"That's strange." Danny replies as he checks it out. "It's use to my signature and Ember's shouldn't be that bad either. What do you know about this place Sam?"

"Nothing besides it was abandon in the 80's once the C02 levels were to high. Only a handful of people lived there till a year or so ago. Now its a ghost town." She says as she looks at the spectral radar. "Do you think Vlad followed us here?"

"He might have..." Danny says looking at the back to see Jazz sleeping near a couple of Fenton works brand laser rifles. "I shouldn't have scolded you when you and her suggested to bring those."

"You know I'm only looking out for you Danny." Sam says with a smile. "It's what friends do."

"I'm glad I have you guys watching my back." He replies.

"I'm sorry." Sam says unexpectedly. "I shouldn't have followed you and-"

"Don't." Danny interrupts. "As you said you were looking out for me."

"It wasn't just that..." Sam whispers until they spotted the mile long graffiti highway below.

"That's the south way to the town." Tucker says. "The article on it says its been shut down for years due to the fire making the ground unstable. Look at the smoke coming out of it!"

"Ugh do you smell that?" Jazz says in a drowsy slur. "Smells like sulfur and rotten eggs."

"Welcome to Centralia." Sam says as the town came into view...

* * *

 _ **Moments earlier...**_

Ember arrives to nothing. Only the streets of the once beautiful small town greeted her with the sight of overgrowth as nature retook the land from civilization. She walks down Centre street toward Locust avenue where the once vibrate community use to live.

"Its gone..." She says with tears in her eyes as she walks down the streets she use to walk on as a kid. Where the whole community would sit outside on their porches in the summer time and greet everyone that passed by. Where everyone knew each others name and would gladly welcome a stranger to their fair city. Where no one would lock their doors at night and felt safe to walk the streets at night.

Gone.

Gone forever except in the hearts and minds of those who once lived there... Like Ember Mclain.

She stops at the center of town where all the towns folk would be shopping, talking, or enjoying the day from their closely built homes. Dropping to the ground she sits down and buries her head in her knees to cry.

"Why?... Why? Why? Why? WHY?!" Ember sobs, tears streaming down her face and on to the concrete.

"Don't cry Ember." The voice of a girl said to her. Ember looks up to see someone she never thought she would see again, Herself. Herself before she left the mortal world.

"It's you..." She says with a sob. "I mean... Me..."

Her real name was... She couldn't remember. She didn't want to and she made herself forget who she was before the fire. But her other side remembered who she was before becoming what she was today.

"Amberline." She told Ember. "Amber for short. Don't you remember?"

Amberline... Amber... Like razors against her skin. It hurt hear to hear that name and everything it brought with it. Amber was the loser teen who could barley play a guitar, Amber was the hopeless romantic nerd who fell for a jerk who ditched her on her first date, Amber was who she didn't want to be and who died in the fire on that cool Septembers night. The nerdy brunette with spring green eyes in a black leather jacket and bell bottom jeans with glasses gave way to the Ember the world would some day love and adore.

"No..." Ember said in a dark tone as she wiped the tears from her face. "You're not hear... You're dead. You died... You died at home!"

"We died." Amber replied as Ember got to her feet.

"SHUT UP!" Ember screams and throws a punch at Amber. She grabs Embers fists and she falls into her. Amber comforts her as she weeps on her shoulder.

"Let it out Em..." She whispers in Embers ear. "Lets go home."

* * *

Danny and the trio land in a empty lot near the intersection at Centre and Locust and what surprised them the most when they landed was when the long gone town of Centralia had returned. The stacked houses, the stores, People walking the streets, and even the old muscle cars returned to tear up the streets.

"Its..." Danny couldn't words at the sight before him.

"It's a true to life ghost town..." Jazz replied as she slung one of the Fenton Laser cannons over her shoulder.

"This is so cool!" Sam exclaims as she looks over in awe. "It's like the town never died."

"This is so weird." Tucker replies as he said as he took out his PDA to research on the topic of 'Real deal Ghost cities'.

"Anyone got a signal on Ember?" Danny asks as he looks around for anything that might give away where she might be.

"Not a thing." Tucker replies. "Try asking for help maybe?"

Jazz and Sam roll their eyes but Danny gives a interesting expression. He quickly goes ghost and walks up to one of the ghosts walking the streets.

"Excuse me sir." He say getting the attention of the male ghost. "Have you seen a rock star looking girl with blue hair walking around?"

"I saw a girl walking with Amber Mclain." The ghost replied. "Down the street toward the edge of toward is where Amber and the Mclain's live. Very kind people. Take care now!"

"Amber?" All four of them ask themselves as they start heading down the street to find Ember.

* * *

The house was exactly like she remembers...

The two story Victorian est home with white and green paint stood out of place in the stacked on one another homes in the center of town. It gave a young Amber a easy way to find home when she only a kid. The large porch had two white wicker chairs with a wicker table between them. Amber took Ember by the hand and lead her to the chairs to sit down.

"Come on! I know you're tired from walking so much!" Amber said as they stepped on the porch.

"How is it?..." Ember asks her as she plants her feet firmly to prevent her from pulling her onto the porch.

"Come on, sit with me." Amber says, refusing to answer the question.

"How is it still hear?" Ember replies strongly.

"The same reason I'm still hear Em." Amber says coolly as she invites her back on the porch. "Come home. Please."

Ember is still confused but her curiosity got the best of her and she reluctantly stepped on to the porch and sat down in the wicker chair.

"Pop?" Amber says offering her a soda.

"How are you still hear? HOW?" Ember demands as she straightens up in her chair.

Amber chuckles and gives her a can of RC cola and opens one for herself as well.

"I don't want a soda, I want answers." Ember demands pushing the soda away from her.

"Relax Em." Amber says waving her demands away. "What made you come back?"

"I'm asking the questions here!" Ember says standing up from her chair.

"Easy Em." Amber replies getting up from the chair and putting her hands on Ember's shoulders. "We'll get the answers together. Just tell me what made you come home?"

Ember sighs and tries to clear her head. She sits down in the chair and takes a sip of the RC cola. It was cold and fresh... She could taste it! It was amazing!

"How can I?..."

Amber laughs, "A old woman told me something that made me think a long time ago, when she came here looking for someone. Something about 'Reminding you of what you have forgotten.'"

Ember looks at her questionably and ignores it all together while she enjoys the sweet taste of her favorite cola. "I just wanted to." She says simply.

Amber smirks and looks back at her with a glare that girlfriends would give to each other when they somehow knew one another was lying. "It's about a boy, isn't it?"

Ember spits out the soda and shoots a mean glare at Amber, "NO!" She shouts.

"Whatever Em." Amber replies with a chuckle.

"Ugh!" She groans. "Yeah..."

"Knew it!" Amber chuckles like a pre-teen. "Whats his name? Is he cute?"

"Shut up." Ember replies as she blushes. "Danny... And... Ugh. He's a good guy... Took care of me after a run in with some creep in the ghost zone. Nursed me back to help somewhat... I'm glad he did. Cute?... Well..."

"Yes! Yes he's cute!" Amber interjects. "If you got a boy then why are you here?... AWWW Did you get in a fight and storm off like before?"

Before... The fire... The humiliation... How can she joke about that?

Ember gets up from the chair and starts to walk off the porch. "I'm leaving. You know how _**I**_ feel about before."

Amber reaches out and grabs her arm like a vise. "You're not going anywhere Ember."

The voice echoed through out the town as if it were a nightmare. It was low and calm which unnerved her dearly. Only one voice sounded like that... Nocturne.

"Nocturne!..." Ember gasps as she was pulled back into her seat.

"Yes." Nocturne confirmed. "Now sit down and try to relax. This won't hurt a bit..."

Nocturne sheds the skin of Amber for his true form, A large black cloak of stars with a demonic head with blood red eyes, and surrounds her... Sucking her into a void of nothing...

* * *

"Ember!" Danny shouts as he tries to wake her up from her deep slumber. "EMBER! WAKE UP!"


	7. Chapter 7: Nightmare

_**Wow 3,000+ views in the first month? Wow! Thats amazing for me. Thank you all from all over who read my writing. Thank you all :)  
**_ _ **We aren't done yet with this story! Hope you enjoy this chapter!**_

 _ **With Love ~Dresner**_

* * *

 _ **Chapter 7: Nightmare**_

Her eyes snap open revealing not the beautiful ghostly eyes but a void of blood red. The tender robins egg blue flame that was her hair changed into a inferno of burning red that pushed the members of team phantom away with hast. She takes to the air and gazes on the team with a evil smile.

"I see you came for the girl!" A distorted voice told them instead of the voice Danny began to enjoy. "Pathetic."

"EMBER!" Danny shouts at her.

"She's not here right now." The voice replied with a blast of flame from her hands.

Danny goes ghost and puts up a shield to save his friends blocking the attacking. She stops her attack and chuckles as Danny falls to his knees worn out from forming the shield.

"Not bad." The voice says as Ember clenches her fist as it smokes from attack. "Try not to tire yourself out, Child."

"Who are you?!" Danny shouts.

A ominous chuckle comes from behind Ember and in the night sky the horned Nocture appeared with a evil smile. "Sleep walkers! FORM!" The ghosts of Centraila changed into their true form, Nocture's minions, the Sleep Walkers. The green ghosts with sown shut eyes appeared in the sky and descended on the heroes like a swarm of locusts.

" _Arrêt!"_ The voice orders stopping the Sleep Walkers in their tracks. She motions her hands in as if she were being handcuffed then claps them together. From the ground came streaks of flame that bound Tucker, Sam, and Jazz's hands. "This is a private fight."

"Nocture!" Danny shouts as the Sleep walkers form a large ring around Ember and himself. "What did you do to Ember?!"

"Dreams are the gate way to the subconscious, Ghost boy." Nocture tells him. "The subconscious has a way of manifesting itself in a spirit when given the proper motivation."

"Wow, The sleep walkers not enough for you anymore?" Danny replies snarky. "Are you scared to face me on your own that you have to take my friends away or turn them against me?"

Nocture laughs manically. "No Ghost child. It is not me who wants to defeat you, it's her."

Ember brings her hands together as if she were praying and throws them out to her sides unleashing a massive fireball forming a shield around the ghost town. The Sleep Walkers were sent to the sky around it along with Nocture and his friends.

"What is this!?" Danny shouts up to Nocture.

"Dreams becoming reality, Child!" Nocture replies as he gives a signal to Ember.

Ember unleashes another fire storm and hits Danny. He recovers quickly and flies toward town to get out of the open. Ember gives a disgusted glare and slowly levitates toward the town with fire balls sitting in her hands ready to attack.

"Hiding won't help you, Phantom." The distorted voice of Ember taunts him in a calm conversational tone.

Danny phases through one of the buildings to get behind her. He charges up a ecto blast but was his from below by a robins egg blue geyser of fire bursting from the pavement below.

"The coal in these hills has existed for centuries from the creatures of old. Once the fire began it touched some of this ancient coal giving off a blue flame." The voice told him. "Beautiful isn't it? When she died her spirit merged with these flames making the woman you care for."

"Nocture get out of her!" Danny shouts as he recovers to fire a blast at Ember.

"Nocture isn't here Danny." The voice says blocking the attack. "I'm something more than just a ghost. Let me show you."

Ember's eyes change from red pools of oblivion back to the ghostly green eyes he learn to enjoy. "Wha-What?... Danny? Danny help! Nocture has-"

With in a second they changed back to red. The voice laughs as she covers her mouth as if she was wiping away crumbs. "Now now dear." She hushes the spirit of Ember. "Children should only speak when spoken to."

The arrogant laugh from the voice possessing Ember angered Danny deeply. He digs deeply into his chest and unleashes his ghostly wail. The energy from the wail shatters the earth and devastates the ghostly recreation of Centraila. The fire which laid beneath the town appeared with blinding fury distorting his vision with smoke and fire. Once the smoke rose from the depths he halts his wail as he chocks on the smoke. His power drained he changes back to his human form and falls toward the pit of fire.

Danny screams as he descends toward the fire...

Then he stops in mid air. He opens his eyes and turns to see the possessed Ember with her hand out as if she was holding him. She brings him up to her till they were looking face to face. "I'm not here to kill you child." The voice told him.

"Ember!" He screams. "I know you're in there! You have to fight back! You have to fight back against Nocture! You're stronger than this!"

"Nocturne?" The voice laughs. "If that's what you want to call me then so be it, child."

The hand closes slowly and Danny begins to feel his wind pipe slowly closing. "Ember is gone, Child. Only her hatred for you remains and it gives me strength. This place and the rage she holds with in fuel my power. You're not going to die by my hand, oh no. Her rage will consume us all and their is nothing you can do about it. You let you're rage get the best of you. Ha, both of you are more alike then you think..."

"Danny!" Ember screams as she breaks control briefly.

"Ember!" Danny shouts back reaching out his hand to her.

"You have- You have to- You have to OVERSHADOW ME!" Ember screams as she gains enough control to release her grip on him slightly.

"Grab my hand!" Danny replies as he tries desperately to get enough air to try and go ghost.

"I can't!" Ember shouts defeated. "She's to strong!"

"You're stronger!" Danny interjects. "The Ember I know is stronger than she thinks!"

"EMBER!" He shouts again. "EMBER! I BELIEVE IN YOU!"

Her name gave her power and with every scream of her name she gained just enough power to throw herself forward to grab Danny's hand. He goes ghost just in time and overshadows her. The body of Ember falls from the sky and lands by the porch of her old home. The shield of fire remained up keeping out all friends and foes from interfering.

The trio bound with fire scream for Danny while Nocturne looks down with condescending eyes.

"Hello little fly. Says the spider to the fly." Nocturne says with a evil grin. "Welcome to my web."

* * *

Danny wakes up on a cold tile floor in a unfamiliar home. The smell of dinner and the dimming light gave away the time being somewhere around 8 or 9pm. The decor was foreign to him with its strange colors and archaic appliances like the over sized retro TV and Microwave in the kitchen near by. He brings himself to his feet and walks to the kitchen where he sees a woman making dinner. On the refrigerator he saw a calendar...

"September 21st 1980?" Danny gasps as he hears the door slam open and the sounds of cry erupt through the house.

"What's wrong Amber honey?" The woman asks the crying girl. The woman wore a apron and looked exactly like Ember albeit older and with flat ironed brown hair.

"Shaun stood me up!" The teenage girl cries from the living room. Danny peaks into the living room to see a much alive Ember Mclain with long brown hair, green eyes, fair skin, and wearing bell bottom jeans and a KISS band shirt.

"Aww honey." Her mother said comforting her. "You're young. You'll have many boyfriends as you get older."

"I'm a loser!" She shouts at her mother. "I'll die alone! I know I will!"

"Oh hush! You're being dramatic." Her mother reassured her.

Amber pushes her aside and rushes up to her room. Leaving her mother to sigh and go to the kitchen to grab a bottle of wine.

Time froze and soon Danny saw Amber laying on the couch with tears covering her face. Next to the couch propped up by the table was a acoustic guitar. A bottle of wine was spilled on the coffee table in front of her. He could hear snoring coming from up stairs and looked over at the near by clock to see it was two in the morning. Before he could form a thought a loud cracking could be heard around him and with out warning the house split in two as the earth caved in forming a sink hole. The fire burning under the city burned all the coal below them making the ground unstable. The fire raced up the wood floors and all the way to the kitchen igniting the gas line destroying the top floor killing everyone above them. Danny takes cover from the fallen floors and drywall near the front door. Flames raced across the remains of the house with impunity as the propane gas and coal fueled its advance turning it a beautiful robins egg blue.

Amber awakens to find herself in the bottom of the sink hole protected by the concrete and wood foundation that remained of her home. The sink hole was massive dropping to what seemed to be the center of the earth itself or to the gates of hell.

"Ember!" Danny shouts as he tries to phase through the flames and rubble but couldn't, something was keeping him from saving her. But Danny refused to give up. Danny pushes and throws what wasn't engulfed in flames to get to her.

"Danny! Please!" She cries as fire and rubble rushes toward her.

"I'm coming Ember!" He shouts as he moves heaven and earth to save her.

The near by wall explodes into oblivion as a massive brute appears covered in red fire. The brute leaps down to stop Danny, throwing concrete and beams at him to halt his advance downward toward Ember. "I'll grind you're skull into dust!" The brute shouts as he throws a large chunk of concrete at him nearly hitting him by a hair. Danny tires to fire a ecto blast at him, but to no avail and results to throwing rocks back at the brute to stop him.

"You'll have to do better than that!" The brute shouts as he swats them out of the air.

"Danny! Save me!" Ember shouts as the stones showered her.

"I'm trying Ember!" Danny shouts as he closes in on her.

Danny arrives near her and sprints to rescue her, but the ground holding her gives way and she falls deeper into the sink hole. The brute leaps down and charges at him at great speed. Danny barley escapes but the brute recovered and unleashed a firestorm of burning stones and ash to distract him as he got closer.

Danny tries to fight back but the brute was to quick and pinned him against the walls of the earth surrounding them. Ember screams as the fire drew closer, "Babypop!"

He closes his eyes trying to muster the strength to fight back, but it all come to naught...

The brute pushed him into the burning earth trying to bury him in

"I'm sorry Ember..." Danny says in a defeated tone. "I'm sorry I tired to use you. I was wrong... I'm sorry! All I wanted was to make a friend but found something more! I'm sure of it."

"I forgive you!" Ember shouts as the fire drew closer.

The brute threw him against the adjacent wall and cracked his knuckles. Danny gathers himself and looks around for something that could give him a edge against the brute. His powers were limited and he was injured heavily with burns and cuts over his body that ripped his suit to pieces.

"I'm enjoying this Phantom." The brute shouted as he took a fighting stance as the remains of the house began to buckle above them. Danny tries to catch himself as beams from the house supports caught themselves on the walls of the sink hole holding up a majority of the flaming rubble. "Now show me what you got!"

The brute charges toward him and Danny, thinking quickly, dives to the ground and throws a stone as hard as he could toward one of the beams that was held weakly against the walls of the sink hole. With a massive crash the debris fell on the brute defeating him and the fire around them.

The dirt and debris extinguished the fire... And covered Ember. Danny tries to clean the smoke and soon spotted her hand sticking out of the dirt. "EMBER!" He shouts nearly tripping on the debris. Danny digs frantically with his hands shouting her name to get her attention and see if she was still alive. He stumbles on her torso and quickly digs her out just enough to pull her out. Taking her in his arms he flies out of the destroyed house leaving it in ruins...

* * *

Sam watches as the shield flickers and the flaming shackles disappear. She quickly reaches into her shirt and pulls out one of the Fenton Lipstick lasers to blast the Sleep Walkers near them and Nocturne. Once they were free they began to free fall until the Specter Speeder, called by Tucker via his PDA, caught them just in time and began firing every ecto-weapon they had against Nocturne to distract him as they closed in on Ember who was still covered in bright red fire.

Ember floated motionlessly as if she was in a trance with her eyes glazed over. The Tucker and Jazz were busy firing in all directions at Nocturne's army to pay any attention to Ember, but Sam was staring intensely praying Danny would come threw. He always had, but whoever had Ember in their control was someone much more dangerous and that worried her.

A bright light consumes Ember and with in a instant the red flame turned to robins egg blue...

Sam smirks slightly, "I knew you would come through."

Then from the fire came Danny falling out of Ember's body and on to the ground below onto the streets. He roles over on to his back to see Ember turning back to normal with her elegant blue flames dancing in the dark sky. She arches backwards and opens her eyes sending a massive fireball into the sky. From the fire the town disappears and in the sky a massive phoenix appears its massive wings scorching the tree tops. It looks down on him like a eagle on a small rabbit, hungry and contemptuous. But as the sun rose behind hit the phoenix let out a scream and flew off into the distance as day light broke through the trees revealing the town that was.

Noctune and his army of sleep walkers flee at the sight of day light. Leaving the heroes and Ember to themselves. Ember slowly descends to earth and as soon as she touched the street Danny rushed to aid her. Sam and the team landed by them to see Danny smiling as he held Ember.

"She's alright." He tells them. "It just took a lot out of her."

"What about Nocturne or that bird?" Jazz asks him with anticipation.

"Let them go." Danny says completely out of character. "If anything their had to be a portal near by if they flew away. It has to be closed by now. Tucker check the radar to be sure."

Danny takes her in his arms and carried her into the Specter Speeder. Tucker and Jazz take the front seats while Sam stays with Danny and Ember. He lays her on the bench inside and rests Ember's head on his lap. She was breathing normal but fast asleep.

Sam breaks the ice rather quickly as they took to the sky with the sun to their back. "What happen in their?" She asks pointing at Ember.

"Its hard to explain." Danny says unsure of himself.

Sam sighs as she looks on with mixed emotions at the sight of Ember laying on him. "What ever happened. I hope it means we don't have to worry about her any more." She gets up and walks to the front leaving the two alone. Ember opens her eyes briefly and yawns with a sleepy smile.

"Babypop?" She says in a whisper. "Are you ok?"

"I'm fine." Danny says with a smirk. "Just a bit worn out after all that."

Ember smiles and reaches for his face. She pulls him close to her and whispers in his ear, "Thank you."

He turns his head and boldly steals a kiss from the sleepy pop star. It felt right to him as the burning feeling of want in his heart filled his chest. Ember's expression goes blank with surprise and Danny prepares to get a rude awakening by her.

Danny was right...

Ember pulls him toward her and kisses him deeply as they head home.


	8. Epilogue

_**Well I had my fun writing this. So enjoy this last chapter until some kind of inspiration hits me again and then BOOM! More extended writing that could be considered utter trash by a bunch of idiots on the internet.  
I hope you all enjoyed this, I know its short. But I'm glad I had almost 4,000 people view this and have consistent reviews. Thanks guys appreciate it. If you Review enough I'll make another story.**_

 _ **With Love ~Dresner**_

* * *

 _ **Epilogue**_

The strange aircraft flies into the distance as the sun rises over the hills and woodlands. Two humanoid figures stood on a near by hill watching them pass. One was a tall male with grey hair standing in a power stance with his hands folded behind his back with a evil grin on his face. Beside him was a female wearing a long black cloak covering her whole body. The phoenix appears in front of them and soon disappeared into a highly decorated silver flask with a phoenix top held out by her cloaked hand. Nocturne soon follows behind and lands in front of them with a disgusted glare at the cloaked figure to his right.

"And to what was my role in this endeavor, Mr. Masters?" Nocturne asks Vlad with his arms folded against his chest.

"To play the figure head." Vlad replied simply. "While she did her work."

"And what would that be?" He asks him.

"To find a weakness in the young phantom." Vlad says with a smile. "I was wrong to think it was the goth girl. But no it was that siren and after this act of trail and tribulation it has strengthened their bond and, more than likely, put a knife between his friends and family. We will see in time..."

"How original." Nocturne says sarcastically. "Now our side of the agreement."

"Ah yes!" Vlad replies. "Your payment has been delivered to your realm as we agreed. You are free to go."

Nocturne disappears in a instant leaving Vlad and the woman alone. "You're Master's assessment on the siren was correct. But why bring this up to me? I have no reason to promote the union of two rather trouble sum enemies of mine. Even with the possibility of cutting away Danial's friends and family from him, why brother when my latest plan is already in motion?"

The woman points to the dirt in front of him where a collection of rocks spelled out what she wanted to say.

"Arrogance." He read. "Me? Now what would give you that idea?" He changes into his ghostly form and takes a power stance.

More stones appeared from the earth and wrote a new message, "Your arrogance will be your downfall. You will forever be a slave to your failure."

Vlad's eyes go blind with rage and readies his energy beams to attack her for her insolence. Then he stops and smiles darkly as a message on his phone beeps a particular tone.

"Not now." He says darkly. "When I rule this earth and the Ghost Zone beyond it I will handle you and Danial personally. Enjoy your last days of freedom, Slave."

Vlad takes off into the night to return to his plans. The woman sighs and shakes her head as she takes off her hood. "You're nothing more than a pawn in a larger game then what you could ever understand. But I'm afraid the next time I meet you, Plasmius, you will be what you fear the most, A failure." Her accent was a thick as the swamp gas in the bayous of Louisiana. "As for the Siren and the Half breed. They will meet their own fate."

* * *

Sam takes the reins from Tucker who swaps with Jazz to get some rest. They were at least three hours away from home on the last leg of their journey. Sam yawns and keeps on flying while Jazz takes the co-pilot. Sam chuckles at Jazz's bed ridden hair as she rubs the sleep out of her eyes.

Jazz yawns and looks back at the snoozing Danny and Ember. "I still can't believe it." She remarks with a slight smile.

"I can't either." Sam agrees, thinking she was baffled as much as she was at the sight of Danny and Ember together and not killing each other. "What does he see in her?"

"I wasn't thinking about that, but OK." Jazz replies confused.

"Oh..." Sam says trying to back track. "Well... Uh."

"I was talking about how much Danny has grown since I found out about his powers." Jazz says. "He's growing up and I'm proud that he's becoming a good person. This thing with Ember shows it more. Though I don't know about him and her becoming a thing, you know?"

"I don't know about it either." Sam replies with concern. "Even though she saved me I still can't shake this feeling from her."

"You sure its not jealousy?" Jazz interjects.

"NO! I'm not jealous of her." Sam says with fire in her stomach.

"Sam." Jazz says putting her arm on her shoulder. "I study psychology and what I know about body language, I can see you care about him more than you know. If you care about him then let him be happy."

Sam turns back to the open sky with out a word. Left to her own thoughts she did consider what she said, but she couldn't help but wage a war with in herself to find the answers.

"Sam." Jazz says to her. "If you need someone to talk to I'm always here."

"Thank you." Sam says while thinking about someone who could truly help her. But not now. Their is a time and place for everything...

 _ **End... To be continued?**_


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